{"id":118997,"date":"2025-05-21T18:45:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T17:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=118997"},"modified":"2025-05-21T18:45:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T17:45:51","slug":"tinubus-meeting-with-pope-leo-xiv-product-of-lobby-babachir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/tinubus-meeting-with-pope-leo-xiv-product-of-lobby-babachir\/","title":{"rendered":"Tinubu\u2019s meeting with Pope Leo XIV, product of lobby &#8211; \u200aBabachir\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By Myke Agunwa<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal has described the invitation extended to President Bola Tinubu to attend the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV as a product of lobbying, adding that it is of no significance to a President that holds no respect for Christians in the country when he picked a Muslim as running mate.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Recall that the head of the Roman Catholic Church recently invited President Tinubu and other world leaders to the papal inauguration at the Vatican City in Rome. At the end of the inauguration, Tinubu had a handshake and exchanged pleasantries with the Pope.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Babachir had supported Tinubu\u2019s candidature during the build-up to the 2023 presidential election but withdrew his support when he (Tinubu) chose Kashim Shettima, a fellow Muslim, as running mate.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Reacting to the Papal visit, Lawal reiterated the fact that Tinubu became President under a Muslim-muslim ticket speaks to the fact that his presence at the Pope\u2019s inauguration could have been arranged by lobbyists. He faulted the President\u2019s visit to the Vatican City, saying a Muslim should not be leading eminent Christians to the Pope.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The former SGF maintained that President Tinubu\u2019s meeting with the Pope further reinforced his sentiment that a Muslim-Muslim ticket is an insult to Christians.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>According to him, Tinubu would not have attended the event if he had a Christian as vice president. He added that the ticket with which Tinubu emerged as Nigeria\u2019s President is an unfair arrangement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cIt reinforces my earlier belief that the Muslim-Muslim ticket is an insult to Christianity. Had there been a Christian as vice president, it\u2019s only expected that he would be the one to represent the government. But now in Nigeria, we have a so-called Muslim visiting the Pope, leading a delegation of Catholics, eminent Catholics, to the Vatican. So it proves the fact that a Muslim-Muslim ticket is an unfair arrangement.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In an interview with journalists on Wednesday, Babachir said President Tinubu\u2019s presence at the event is not an achievement, adding that lobbyists with the correct inducement may have arranged the invitation.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cYou know that going to see the Pope is just a matter of your lobby. How well you can lobby and how many friends you have out there in the Vatican that can lobby for you. So, it is not as if it\u2019s a major achievement to visit the Pope on his inauguration. It can be arranged in advance by lobbyists, probably with the correct inducement. So, Bola Tinubu going to visit the Pope is a non-issue,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"yj6qo\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"adL\"><\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Myke Agunwa Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal has described the invitation extended to President Bola Tinubu to attend the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tinubu\u2019s meeting with Pope Leo XIV, product of lobby - \u200aBabachir\u00a0 - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/tinubus-meeting-with-pope-leo-xiv-product-of-lobby-babachir\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tinubu\u2019s meeting with Pope Leo XIV, product of lobby - \u200aBabachir\u00a0 - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Myke Agunwa Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal has described the invitation extended to President Bola Tinubu to attend the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/tinubus-meeting-with-pope-leo-xiv-product-of-lobby-babachir\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-21T17:45:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Babachir-Lawal.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"775\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"434\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/tinubus-meeting-with-pope-leo-xiv-product-of-lobby-babachir\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/tinubus-meeting-with-pope-leo-xiv-product-of-lobby-babachir\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"headline\":\"Tinubu\u2019s meeting with Pope Leo XIV, product of lobby &#8211; 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